Stadium Plan Must Be Put In Concrete Allen Wants State-Of-The-Art Stadium For The Seahawks

Paul Allen might not know yet exactly what he wants, but it is increasingly clear that the Mercer Island billionaire will accept nothing short of a state-of-the-art football facility before he exercises an option to buy the Seattle Seahawks.

But without a concrete plan, and little time to devise one, the prospective NFL owner might have to accept a less-than-ideal location if a new football stadium becomes a reality.

That’s because the Seattle Mariners are not about to change their plans on the Seahawks’ behalf - Paul Allen or no Paul Allen.

Although Allen’s representatives, Bob Whitsitt and Bert Kolde, met with Mariners executives Thursday, there was no indication they reached an agreement on the best course for a sports-entertainment complex near the Pioneer Square/Kingdome area.

Whitsitt and Kolde have been talking to the Mariners since Allen acquired a 14-month option to buy the Seahawks from owner Ken Behring last month.

But there seemed to be an urgency to this week’s talks because their duties with the Portland Trail Blazers, Allen’s NBA team, are winding down. The Blazers were eliminated from the first round of the NBA playoffs last week by the Utah Jazz.

The executives started focusing their full attention on how to resolve the stadium issue, perhaps the biggest obstacle in the Microsoft co-founder’s attempt to buy the Seahawks.

They might not get much help from the Mariners, though.

While Mariners officials characterized their meeting Thursday as “cordial,” others suggested it was less than warm.

The professional teams, which share the Kingdome as well as the Puget Sound fan base, have a history of tension despite changes in ownership.

Mindful of past rivalries, Whitsitt and Kolde have stated publicly they support the Mariners’ timetable to open a new stadium by March 1999.

Privately, they have felt the pressure of trying to prepare an ideal package for Allen while being limited by the Mariners’ plans.

Mariners vice president Paul Isaki said the Allen group has not asked the American League club to delay its schedule for a new baseball stadium, which is expected to be located on the “Ackerley site” at South Royal Brougham Way and First Avenue South.

But Whitsitt has hinted the Seahawks would like Mariners ownership and the Public Facilities District board, which is in charge of overseeing baseball-stadium development, to give them a little more time to decide what to do with the Kingdome. But the Mariners have not changed their timetable, even though the threat of legal action or the time needed to condemn private property could take them past their opening deadline.

“If a southern site is chosen for baseball, then the only way to have room for a first-rate football stadium would be to demolish the Kingdome,” Kolde said last week.

But razing the Kingdome, a 20-year-old facility with $130 million in public debt, could be a potential land mine for the politicians who would have to sell the idea to the community.

Despite their concerns, Allen’s representatives did not ask the Mariners to consider holding up their project for a month so Whitsitt and Kolde could offer an alternative plan that included the Seahawks.

“There were no demands, no alternatives, nothing that would relate to stopping the course we’re on,” Isaki said.

That course is headed to the 15-acre Ackerley site, about two blocks from the Kingdome. The Public Facilities District board voted this week to recommend the site, and a final vote is scheduled for Sept. 9.

By choosing the site, the Public Facilities District essentially blocked any option to a new football stadium in the area, other than remodeling or tearing down the Kingdome.

“There’s just not a lot of places in the area to build (a football stadium),” said one official familiar with the situation.

Had the seven-member board instead chosen the north lot near Pioneer Square, the Seahawks ownership would have had the option of building a new stadium on unoccupied land south of the Kingdome, in a combination of the south lot and the Ackerley site.